A lake.

“I’ll be able to wash myself here in the future…”

He filled his water gourd and made his way back, picking berries along the way.

…

After Isla poured in the water and berries he started grinding the charcoal into a paste, he then spread it out along the floor leaving it to dry.

He took some of the remaining charcoal and after crushing it mixed with some water to make a paste.

Then grabbed a twig and cut one end of it a bit, then he placed the paste on it and started brushing his teeth.

After he was satisfied with how much he brushed his teeth he poured some water into his mouth and rinsed it, spitting out the black sludge.

“Not the best tasting but it’ll do… at least my teeth won’t rot…”

…

Two weeks had gone by peacefully.

Isla had made 3 more traps, he was eating fresh meat and berries everyday.

His life had become a routine, he got up in the morning, ate breakfast, brushed his teeth, went to wash every two days with his activated charcoal by the lake, checked his traps, prepared any food that he had caught.

He had even started storing some of the rabbit meat by smoking it and leaving it in big leaves in his cave to keep them cold.

He always made a fire to stay warm at night, using the charcoal the next day to make all he needed for a semi normal life.

He upgrade his cave base.

Adding a door, some shelves and even a hammock.

He filled his days with hard work, giving himself little time to think.

His life was starting to become like any normal humans.

But after he had made himself comfortable with his lifestyle it started to get monotonous.

…

He realised just how lonely he truly was.

He also realised that he had forgotten his true purpose.

“This isn’t right… I need to get stronger… I was so focused on survival that I forgot to push myself, taking the easy route rather than facing danger”

The berry stuffed rabbit didn’t reply as it was roasting over his fire, it was now his speciality.

‘This ends tomorrow’

Isla thought as he ripped into the rabbits tender flesh.

…

Bright rays shined through the cracks of the makeshift door, Isla left his hammock after taking off his grass blanket, it was weirdly comfortable.

Today wasn’t a wash day.

So after a quick breakfast Isla brushed his teeth and made his way over to the traps.

He had decided that today was the day that he would fight the horned rabbits in hand to hand combat.

…

“You horny- I mean horned mother fucker”

Isla shouted at the bruised rabbit.

He himself wasn’t in great shape, covered in cuts and nicks.

Prior to the fight he had removed all of his clothes, wrapping a leaf loincloth around his groin area with some grass rope.

The horned beast came at him once again, he threw a punch, it dodged.

But then it made a mistake it decided to bite down on Isla’s arm.

“You little shit!”

He screamed as he started to beat down on his head, it’s pained squeals filled the pit, yet Isla didn’t let up.

He kept beating away until it’s eyes started flowing out of their sockets and it’s grip on his arm loosened.

*pant* *pant*

“Damn… it”

Isla hissed through his teeth.

…

The wind blew quietly through the grass around Isla’s cave, home? Cave-home?, as he dragged his feet and the bunny punching bag.

He sat down on his favourite sitting-boulder as he tried to pull the skin off of the rabbit carcass.

All of the cuts, nicks and bite marks on his body were covered in activated charcoal, it was either smeared on or attached on with grass ropes.

*RIIIP*

The progress he had made made in preparing the rabbit was non existent, he had ripped up the fur, meat and even the organs during the process.

Making the meat unusable.

“Fuuuuck…”

He threw the mangled corpse into his waste hole, then made his way back into the cave and after eating half a smoked rabbit got onto his hammock completely exhausted.

The sleep demons took him under in about 5 seconds.

…

-Death’s betrayal AI rebooting- -Reboot complete-

…

Isla woke up just like any other day, with the light rays hitting his face.

Just today he was sore all over.

It wash a wash day, after taking some activated charcoal he made his way to the lake.

He lowered himself into the water after he was fully ‘lathered up’ in charcoal.

As he went under he expected to feel his cuts to burn slightly.

Yet.

He felt nothing but the refreshing coolness of the lakes water.

Glancing down at his body he realised that all of those cuts were gone.

“What the fuck is going o-”

-Good morning Isla-

*SPLASH* *SPLASH*

“AAAA- WHO THE FUCK WAS THAT!? … SHOW YOURSELF!”

Isla screamed as he heard a human voice for the first time in three weeks, he got out of the water in his birthday suit holding his spear up in front of him.

Rather than standing in a battle position he was trying to hide behind the spear.

-Haa… Haa… Haa… You scream like- -Calibrating language- -Finding name used for female dog- -a bitch-

The AI laughed in it’s robotic voice, yet although it was still monotonous.

Wait… laughed?

That monotony was laced with a tinge of newly found intelligence

Tears poured down Isla’s face as he let go of the spear and started hugging himself.

“AAAAIIIIIII…”

*sniff* *sniff*

“You're finally back…”

Completely ignoring Isla’s feelings the AI started reporting without any of the previous intelligence.

-Detected stat and passive backlog- -Proceeding data dump-

-Loading permanent hosts stats-

Isla McCall

Age: 24

Race: Human Male

Death counter: 5

Class: Na

Strength: 1

Agility: 1

Endurance: 1

Spirit: 0.2

Passives:

Offensive: Na

Defensive: rank 1 bludgeoning damage resistance, rank 1 slashing damage resistance, rank 1 poison resistance, rank 1 disintegration resistance, rank 9 acid resistance, rank 9 pain resistance

Auxiliary : Mental fortitude

-Loading temporary body hosts stats-

Strength: 1.2

Agility: 1.2

Endurance: 1.4

Passives:

Defensive: (upgraded) rank 3 slashing damage resistance, rank 11 pain resistance

Auxiliary : (acquired) Natures skin

-New auxiliary passive acquired: Natures skin- -Increase in effectiveness of natural healing on skin. Slightly strengthens skin to prevent new cuts. Endurance + 0.1-

*Plop*

Isla fell head first into the lake, he was out cold.

-Detected loss of consciousness in hosts body-

The AI stated.

-Scanning hosts brain- -Determined to be due to data overload- -Determined to be due backlog release-

It went quiet for a few seconds.

-Calibrating language- -Finding suitable apology for mistake that may cause the death of host-

Once again it went quiet.

-My bad-

…

-Death counter: 6- -You have died- -Life length 22days 4 hours 6 minutes and 29 seconds- -Natures skin added to permanent auxiliary passive list-

Isla blinked and stopped staring into the void.

“You -bleep- -bleep- -bleep- -bleep- -bleep- -bleep- mother -bleep- -bleep- -bleep- -bleep- -bleep- son of a -bleep- -bleep- -bleep- -bleep-”

Isla recited a weirdly AI targeted wave of profanity.

*pant* *pant*

-Resurrection sequence initiating in 10… 9… 8… 7…-

The AI started it’s usual countdown while Isla tried to object.

“NO, NO don’t you fucking dare BADABOOM my ass to the next word you shitty piece of artificial intel-”

-1…-

*SILENCE*

“Nooo-”

*BADABOOM*

-Welcome back to the world of the living… Isla McCall-

…